Quality assurance

Quality assurance in VET is a key priority at EU level to promote increased transparency of VET policy developments between Member States, thereby enhancing mutual trust, mobility of workers and learners, and lifelong learning. In cooperation with the European Commission, Cedefop supports the implementation of the EQAVET Recommendation of 2009 at EU, national and sectoral level.

European cooperation on quality in VET started as early as 2001 with the European forum on quality in VET (jointly set up by the Commission and Cedefop) and the establishment of the technical working group on quality in VET (TWG) which functioned until mid 2005. Subsequent European cooperation led to the definition of common principles, guidelines and tools for quality development which resulted in the establishment of a common quality assurance framework for VET (CQAF) endorsed by the Council in 2004. In October 2005, the TWG was replaced by ENQA VET, the European platform financed through the Leonardo da Vinci programme to ease exchange of experiences, common learning, consensus building and support to further developing the CQAF model.

Following intense cooperation with Member States, the European Commission presented in April 2008 a draft recommendation on the establishment of a European quality assurance reference framework for VET (EQARF) which was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council on 18 June 2009 as Recommendation on the establishment of a European Quality Assurance Reference Framework for Vocational Education and Training. The same year the EQAVET network was established replacing the former ENQA VET platform. All these years Cedefop is providing the European Commission with technical and scientific support for implementing for implementing the Recommendation through:

a) advice and expertise to the EQAVET steering committee set up by the European Commission;

b) reporting on quality assurance mechanisms in line with EQAVET and continuous information and feedback loops to IVET and CVET developments in the context of the Riga Conclusions of 2015 (MTD 2);

c) support to European cooperation between experts and stakeholders on quality in VET.

In an effort to promote the quality of training delivery Cedefop has set up and is coordinating jointly with several networks of VET providers active at EU level, the European Community of Learning Providers.